Machine-to-Machine/Man (M2M) communication system consists of M2M nodes and an underlying network. M2M nodes communicate with each other through the underlying network. One M2M node contains at least one Application Entity (AE) or one Common Services Entity (CSE). The AE is a logical unit executing actual M2M applications. The CSE is a logical unit managing and serving the M2M applications. An underlying Network Services Entity (NSE) provides for CSEs services such as device management, location services and device triggering. The NSE may be embodied as Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Machine Type Communication-Inter-Working Function (MTC-IWF) entity, and the like.
The communication between the M2M applications is implemented by the interaction between CSEs. The M2M applications need to be registered to the CSE. The CSEs also need to register with each other so as to implement the interaction of the M2M applications through the communication between the CSEs. FIG. 1 shows the architecture of a M2M system.
In the architecture of the M2M system, as shown in FIG. 1, the application node is an execution node at the terminal side, and may be, e.g., a smart meter, a temperature measurement and control sensor, a fire alarm, a smart appliance, etc. The Middle Node (MN) is a middleware connecting the execution node at the terminal side to the server at the network side, and may be a gateway. The Infrastructure Node (IN) is a server at the network side. An application entity registered to the IN (abbreviated as IN-AE) may be a management platform of an M2M Service Provider (abbreviated as M2M SP). The M2M SP maintains a binding relationship between the identifier of the M2M node and the CSE and the identifier in the underlying network.
The application nodes can be divided into two categories according to their functions: nodes that contain CSE and nodes that do not contain CSE. An Application Dedicated Node (ADN) includes at least one AE without CSE. An Application Service Node (ASN) includes at least one AE and one CSE. Physically, the ASN or MN corresponds to a User Equipment (UE).
In practical applications, when an IN-AE needs to create, retrieve, update or delete a resource in the UE, the IN-AE should trigger the ASN or the CSE in the MN (abbreviated as ASN/MN-CSE) to establish a connection with a Common Services Entity in the Infrastructure Node (abbreviated as IN-CSE). As a server at the network side, the trigger message needs to be transmitted through the underlying network. The server provides the following information to the underlying network so as to perform device triggering.
1) M2M External Identifier (abbreviated as M2M-Ext-ID): an identifier for identifying a target UE of a trigger request.
2) Recipient Identifier of the Trigger message (abbreviated as Trigger-Recipient-ID): an identifier used for routing a trigger message to a target ASN/MN-CSE in the UE.
3) IN-CSE Identifier (abbreviated as IN-CSE ID).
The M2M-Ext-ID is one of the information necessary to perform the device triggering and should be provided to the underlying network by the server. However, in the related art, there is no effective mechanism for the IN-CSE to acquire the M2M-Ext-ID, which inevitably results in the incapability of implementing the device triggering process.
No effective solutions have been proposed at present to solve the abovementioned problem in the related art.